Stress and Weight Gain

It's a known fact that stress is one of the biggest obstacles to losing weight. In the clinic, we have seen several people who struggle to lose weight until they were either given a medication or supplement to help with stress. Others develop coping mechanisms like "stress eating" to help. All stress isn't bad. So please don't get hung up on the word stress and deny you have stress in your life, as there is good and bad stress. Stress is a normal part of our daily lives, and we are all must deal with it. How you deal with everyday stress from traffic, to deaths in the family, to the loss of a job determines how it will affect you physically. In the articles below, we will talk about stress, supplements to deal with stress, and coping mechanisms.

Stress causes weight gain in many ways. One has to do with our stress hormone cortisol. When in stressful situations, our fight or flight response is triggered, leading to a release of various stress-related hormones that give us boosts of energy, shifts in metabolism and blood flow and other changes. A long time ago, when humans had to run from lions on the open prairie, these hormonal shifts were significant. But what happens in 2019 when your body shifts to using sugar for a quick burst of energy to escape a lion, but there is no lion to run from? Does your body then save that sugar as fat? What happens if you remain stressed for a prolonged amount of time due to chronic stress? Sadly the human body converts that extra sugar into fat. If you think your stress is a component of your unwanted weight, contact us at valentineweightloss.com to schedule an appointment with Dr. Valentine. Medical weight loss addresses these complicated reasons we can weight.

Author

Andre Brooks - Program Director

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